My Heart and Yours
by ChaosViper
Summary: POST-MANGA. The heart that beats within Inuyasha's breast is not his own - a difficult realization made within the three years he was not whole. Now that Kagome has returned, some very important admissions must be made.


_Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction. I do not own Inuyasha or any of the characters that appear in the series. I did not make any money in the writing of this story, and I do not intend to use it to promote anything for personal gain. Full property rights go to the wonderful Rumiko Takahashi, Viz, and those in the wondrous land of Nihon who made this franchise possible. _

It was starting to grate on Kagome's last nerve. The day she had returned to her world in the past had been the happiest and most relieving experience of recent memory. For so long she had been torn between two worlds, two lives as different as night and day. When she had been unwillingly wrenched from Inuyasha and her friends after the well's power had failed, only then had she realized where she truly belonged. Now, to her utter delight, she had been given a second chance. She was back, and had few qualms about leaving behind her old life. So why was Inuyasha being so withdrawn?

He hardly said a word as she became reacquainted with new and old friends. He barely looked at her as she bid farewell to their loved ones and he led her back to his hut in Inuyasha's Forest. His forlorn demeanor made Kagome both confused and slightly worried as she began to settle in for the night. After stepping outside and slipping into a light kimono Sango had lent her to sleep in, she returned to find Inuyasha had positioned himself against the wall in the classic sleeping pose she remembered, with sword in reach inches away and head down, his bangs covering his somber eyes.

She bent down in front of him, lifting her hand to push his silver bangs up and out of the way as she felt his forehead. His skin was warm and clammy, typical for the heat of the season, but she pressed her other hand to her own forehead just to be sure.

"Well, you don't have a fever," she uttered assuredly. He continued to seemingly stare off into space somewhere around her feet and the floor, as if he was looking through her rather than at what was directly in front of him. Unsure of what to do at this point, Kagome took a deep breath, letting it out slowly and feeling some of her tension being blown away with it.

"Inuyasha, I…"

She gasped as he suddenly grabbed the wrist she still had placed on his forehead and squeezed it lightly. She was taken aback by how he slowly lifted his head to look at first her face, and then at the wrist he held in his grasp. He loosened his grip slightly, and his eyes widened and then softened. The beginnings of a smile began to work their way out of the corners of his mouth, and it nearly took Kagome's breath away as he pulled her into his embrace, one arm snaking its away around her back, while the other hand came up to support the back of her head and tilt it slightly.

Inuyasha made the effort to pull her chest flush and tight against his own. He buried his face into her neck and inhaled deeply. His grip on her tightened, and he sighed happily as he felt the soft thumping reverberating throughout both their beings. He took even greater satisfaction in that the pulsing beats he detected were pounding in time with one another, like one muscle working together rather than from two separate entities.

"Kagome…I feel it." The breathiness and strain in his voice made Kagome shiver, a tingling that started in her chest and worked its way down to the very tips of her toes. He nuzzled his face further into her neck, burying his nose in her hair and breathing in the intoxicating aroma of her scent. Kagome's head fluttered once or twice, and her entire body started to feel faint as he tightened his hold on her.

"This is real. You're real. I'm not dreaming. I've woken up."

Kagome could not hide her confusion. "Inuyasha...?" She attempted to pull away and look at him, but his grip on her held steadfast. She could feel his claws pressing into her back, and the hand in her hair began running itself smoothly through her ebony tresses. When he suddenly sat back against the wall, pulling her into his lap in the same movement, only then did he relax his hold enough for her to look up into the golden eyes she'd come to love so much.

"I didn't know what to do with myself, Kagome. I thought I could handle it if you ever left, but…" He paused to cup her chin and bring his sullen gaze to meet her own. "I told myself that you were where you needed to be. I figured the well had disappeared for a reason, and that after Naraku was defeated, your purpose here was complete. You could go on living the life you were meant to live…but I think I was just kidding myself."

He stroked her cheek lightly with his clawed thumb. "Over time I became surrounded by people I'd come to care for, and who cared for me, as well. But despite it all, you were the one I continued to dream about. I've tried to live each day as you taught me, and to cherish the friends that we've made, but it wasn't enough. It took me so long to understand. That emptiness, and that hole in the pit of my stomach…it's because I realized you were no longer at my side. When you were pulled to the other side, a part of me went with you."

At the uttering of this last statement, Kagome's eyes widened at the sight of genuine tears beginning to trickle down Inuyasha's handsome face. He clenched his fangs together in a feeble attempt to hold them back, but years of loneliness and frustration had taken their toll on the young hanyou. He could do no such thing. No longer could he deny his true feelings when the object of his deepest affections was finally present, cradled in his arms after such a long absence.

_"Kagome was born to meet me...and I was born for her!"_

"My heart…felt incomplete. My world was empty without you in it. I felt like the Shikon no Tama, only a shard of my former self. Without Kagome…there is no Inuyasha." His brilliant eyes met hers once again. "My life is not my own. It belongs to Kagome, and she belongs to me. Her heart traversed 500 years to return to me, and I would like to return the favor…if she will have me."

Kagome's mind was spiraling in a million different directions at once. It took her a moment to process what the man holding her had confessed, but when her brain did finally start to work again, the temporary haze vanished. She thrust herself into his chest, arms wrapping around his shoulders tightly and with such force that the hanyou's head hit the wall behind him with a loud thud. Their lips met so quickly that Inuyasha had little time to catch up before his head stopped spinning out of control. He tasted wet salt in the corner of his mouth as Kagome's tears streamed freely down her face and reached the place where their mouths were joined. Although inexperienced, she thrust her tongue out to meet his and pressed her body as close to his as she could possibly manage.

She parted long enough between kisses to say, "I love you, Inuyasha. Be with me always."

He lifted her out of his lap to move them to the futon, and she wrapped her legs around his waist so as to not break their connection. He laid her down on the cover, clothes discarded, their bodies sinking into one another so thoroughly that neither could tell where one ended and the other began. Their souls merged completely, and he tore his mouth away long enough to respond to her previous enquiry.

"Forever."


End file.
